Thanks for sharing, great stuff.Happy to know our economic sanctions haven't starved the horses or the patrons yet.

Wow, those betting windows look just like Fairmount Park!

During Bill Clinton's bombing campaign on Serbia I carried on an email exchange with a Serbian racing fan, who told me they continued to go to the races at the Belgrade Hippodrome throughout the war. The bombed out bridges just made it a little tougher to get to the track. Apparently guys everywhere will stop at nothing to get down on horse racing.

Iraq was not invaded by NATO, but rather by a coalition of sovereign nations. The bombing of Serbia was a NATO initiative... Clinton certainly had input, but Solana was calling the shots.

NATO would not have taken action if Clinton had not put pressure on them. All of Europe was sitting back doing nothing about the 2nd round of Serb-led ethnic cleansing in their own back yard, and Serbia was still defying the U.S. on conditions imposed after the Bosnian war.

I think it's as much a "theocracy" as any other nation the U.S. supports with billions of dollars (which is pretty much zero actual theocracies), as the original poster claimed. It just so happens that Israel is the prime beneficiary of all that pork barrel foreign aid spending the righties are constantly wailing about.

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But he does know a lot about horse racing... it's just that no one can get him to talk about it, since he has some strange on *racetrack management,* an oxymoron if I ever heard one.

Blah blah blah as usual more noise of nothing to do with the actual subject.

But let me ask, if you're claiming that bombing of Serbia to end the Kosovo conflict was a NATO-led humanitarian effort that Clinton merely went along with, and not really a Clinton-led/instigated affair like I think, you're pretty much cutting the legs out from under all your fellow righties who claim that was merely an effort to deflect attention from the Lewinsky affair, aren't you?

Israel is a far more secular nation than this one is; no one is seeking to convert the 1.1 million Arabs who live (and flourish) in Israel proper to Judaism. Read Ynet/Yediot Ahronot if you doubt me... a terrific paper over there, and it's chockablock with attacks on the haredim, who while represented in the Knesset are just 1 or 2 of 18 parties in that body.

As for what my "fellow righties" think, I voted for Clinton, and I never thought the bombing of Serbia had anything to do with Monica Lewinsky. The Sudanese aspirin factory bombing... that's another story.

Israel is a far more secular nation than this one is; no one is seeking to convert the 1.1 million Arabs who live (and flourish) in Israel proper to Judaism.

Than what nation? And who is trying to convert whom?

The original (tangential) claim that I was skewering by pointing out the Israel aid was that the U.S. is giving all sorts of aid money to theocracies. It isn't giving ANY substantial aid to theocracies, if it's giving any at all.

Here's the damn list - point out the theocracies receiving the billions:

Far more secular than the US... and if you think Jews proselytize among Gentiles, I've got a bridge to sell you.

WTF? You somehow got to this nonsense from a comment about Bill Clinton bombing Serbia? So what are you claiming now, that the United States government proselytizes among Jews, or what? And the building of new settlements and claim on Jerusalem as the rightful capital ... that's all secular ?

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As for theocracies that get US billions, try Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Neither one of those are theocracies. Pakistan has an elected civilian representative government, and so does Afghanistan, after a fashion, if you can consider Karzai truly elected ... but in any case "theocracy" he is not.

During Bill Clinton's bombing campaign on Serbia I carried on an email exchange with a Serbian racing fan, who told me they continued to go to the races at the Belgrade Hippodrome throughout the war. The bombed out bridges just made it a little tougher to get to the track. Apparently guys everywhere will stop at nothing to get down on horse racing.

A SHOT AT FAIRMOUNT PARK!!!

I am surprised at that Terry

coming from the office of tourism from Cicero/Hawthorne -well not going to go there cough cough